A transformation process and mechanism between the α-conformation and β-conformation of conjugated polymer PFO in precursor solutionElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: The calculation method of the proportion of β-conformation in PFO solution, light emission spectra of the transformation process from α-conformation to β-conformation. See DOI: 10.1039/c5sm00074b

In this work, the solvent field and temperature are used to explore the mutual transformation dynamic process and mechanism between the α-conformation and β-conformation in poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (PFO) precursor solution. The conformational transformation of the PFO chain is researched by UV-vis absorption spectra and the proportions of the β-conformation are quantitatively calculated. The corresponding variation trend of the aggregation structure is researched using a static and dynamic light scattering (SLS/DLS) method. It is found that the mutual transformation processes between the α-conformation and β-conformation are reversible in essence. Especially in the transformation processes, the complicated relationship between the β-conformation and the aggregation structure is understood, that is the aggregation structure promotes formation of the β-conformation under solvent field, then the conformational transformation of the β-conformation promotes the dissociation of the aggregation structure under temperature. The above results give an insight into the β-conformation and the aggregation structure of PFO in theory. Furthermore, under the temperature, we find that both two transformation steps have good linear correlations, which indicates that using temperature can be considered as a good method to accurately control the proportion of β-conformation in actual applications, and it will help us to get the desired proportion of the β-conformation in PFO precursor solution so as to make the charge carrier mobility of optoelectronic films increased and device performance better. A mutual transformation dynamic process and mechanism between the α-conformation and β-conformation in PFO solution.